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Here's a line you might not have considered in any depth:
FIRST MURDERER: He's a traitor.
SON: Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!
FIRST MURDERER: What, you egg!
[Stabbing him]
Young fry of treachery!
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FIRST MURDERER: He's a traitor.
SON: Thou liest, thou shag-hair'd villain!
FIRST MURDERER: What, you egg!
[Stabbing him]
Young fry of treachery!
11/
As they say on Twitter, "let that sink in". That moment of a young son, a *child* defending his absent father's honour, against a murderer who has orders to kill him for belonging to the wrong family.
That's Macbeth's tyranny in a single moment.
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That's Macbeth's tyranny in a single moment.
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In the figure of MALCOLM, children represent the natural order of succession through descendents.
Again -- there are historical quibbles over whether this is accurate to early medieval succession, but the play seems sure of it.
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Again -- there are historical quibbles over whether this is accurate to early medieval succession, but the play seems sure of it.
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It's also noteworthy in 4:3 when ROSS says:
Alas, poor country!
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
Be call'd our mother, but our grave.
A true patriot seems himself as the child of his country, bound to respect its laws and grow up to defend or avenge it.
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Alas, poor country!
Almost afraid to know itself. It cannot
Be call'd our mother, but our grave.
A true patriot seems himself as the child of his country, bound to respect its laws and grow up to defend or avenge it.
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FINALLY...let's look at the ultimate child in Macbeth... the BLOODY CHILD that the witches summon in Act 4 Sc 1.
This is a brilliant and fitting supernatural image -- it seems to suggest many readings at once, and Macbeth doesn't read it or its warning correctly.
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This is a brilliant and fitting supernatural image -- it seems to suggest many readings at once, and Macbeth doesn't read it or its warning correctly.
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For now, let's see the BLOODY CHILD as emblematic of the play's -- and Macbeth's -- marginal but real preoccupation with children.
If we see Macbeth as a bereaved father, the BLOODY CHILD could appear to him like a child he lost.
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If we see Macbeth as a bereaved father, the BLOODY CHILD could appear to him like a child he lost.
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Or perhaps it echoes LM's violent language from Act 2 -- "dash'd the brains out" -- and, as with LM's image, this one forces Macbeth into a bloody act.
The BLOODY CHILD could symbolise the children Macbeth has killed or will kill -- Banquo's Fleance and Macduff's children.
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The BLOODY CHILD could symbolise the children Macbeth has killed or will kill -- Banquo's Fleance and Macduff's children.
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Perhaps the BLOODY CHILD who ironically hints at Macduff's victory is Macduff himself, bloody from being "untimely ripp'd" from his mother. Macbeth, of course, does not understand its message about "none of woman born".
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A good note to end on, then, that for Macbeth who has no children and who murders the children of others, it is a misunderstanding about the birth of a child that initiates his ultimate death.
I hope this was some use in thinking about CHILDREN in Macbeth.
Goodnight.
/end
I hope this was some use in thinking about CHILDREN in Macbeth.
Goodnight.
/end
